Google Home Buying Guide
Updated: Nov. 26, 2021Google Home is a smart speaker and voice assistant that has many great features. Here's what you need to know before purchasing one of your own.
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Google Home is a smart speaker and voice assistant that can do much more than just play music. It can also be used to check the weather and road conditions and schedule tasks. If your home has Google Home-compatible smart devices, the smart speaker can also facilitate tasks, such as unlocking doors, turning up the thermostat and controlling lights, using just voice commands. Google Home works with more than 5,000 smart home devices from more than 150 brands. Here’s what you need to know about Google Home before you make a purchase.
This video showcases a collection of products that will make your home smarter.
What Are My Google Home Options
There are three different types of Google Home. The only real difference between them is their size, available colors and how well they play music.
The Google Home Mini is the tiny, puck-sized version that is great for those with limited room and/or funds. The sound’s not great, but it’s a good choice for those who want a smart speaker without much of an investment. You can get the Mini in four colors: chalk, charcoal, coral and aqua.
The Google Home is the mid-sized, cylinder-shaped speaker (shown above). It has decent sound, as long as you don’t turn it up too loud. It comes in only one color, white, but you can purchase colored bases for it.
The Google Home Max is the largest of the three speakers and the best choice if you are an audiophile. It has 4-1/2-in.-high excursion drivers, two tweeters and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) that give it clear sound and thumping bass. Plus, the Max will analyze whatever room it’s in and adjust the sound curve to make the music sound even better. The Google Home Max comes in two colors, chalk and charcoal, and you can purchase dozens of different covers for it.
Here’s what you need to know about the Google Home app.
How Much Does Google Home Cost
The Google Home currently retails for $99, the Google Home Max is $299 and the Google Home Mini is $49. You can often get the Mini and the original Google Home for a discounted price since they’ve been around a while. There are no monthly fees for any of the Google Home devices.
Where to Buy the Google Home
You can buy Google Home just about anywhere that sells tech items, such as Target, Best Buy, Amazon and Walmart. You can also buy the smart speaker straight from the source at Google’s website. The same goes for the Google Home Max and Mini, with one exception. As of this writing, Mini and Max were not available on Amazon.
Have you bought Google Home but haven’t set it up? Here’s everything you need to know to successfully set up your Google Home.
